July 2012

Norman Singleton is Rep. Ron Paul’s Legislative Director. He has worked for Dr. Paul since 1997. Once a month, Norm and I meet at Bailey’s Pub & Grill in Arlington, Virginia to discuss two subjects—pro wrestling and libertarian politics.

The first is the primary reason for our meetings. Bailey’s offers monthly WWE pay-per-views which we enjoy thoroughly over cold beer and chicken wings. It is by far the most serious subject we discuss.

Our discussions of libertarianism, or the Ron Paul-inspired “liberty movement,” to which Norm and I both belong, are always interesting. Norm is a diehard libertarian. I am more traditionally conservative. How radical we are in our politics sometimes differs. How practical we are in advancing what some might consider “radical” politics does not.

Austrian economist Murray Rothbard was one of the most brilliant libertarian minds of all time. Rothbard was also considered one of the most radical libertarians of his time. Today, Rothbard’s pure, unadulterated anti-statist philosophy is celebrated by libertarians as heroic and unequaled.

But Rothbard was also very practical about politics. Based on a recent discussion we’d had about the inevitable tensions that come with moving the liberty movement into the mainstream, Norm brought to my attention some old Rothbard columns from his personal collection.

While some radical libertarians eschew politics altogether, believing it compromises their philosophical purity, or that education alone will eventually bring a majority of people to the philosophy of liberty, Rothbard disagreed. He wrote in 1981:

I see no other conceivable strategy for the achievement of liberty than political action. Religious or philosophical conversion of each man and woman is simply not going to work; that strategy ignores the problem of power, the fact that millions of people have a vested interest in statism and are not likely to give it up… Education in liberty is of course vital, but it is not enough; action must also be taken to roll back the State...

The above quote should be of no surprise to anyone remotely familiar with Rothbard. My favorite aspect of Rothbard is that for his entire life, it was never enough to simply be more radical than his fellow libertarian—Rothbard wanted to take political action.

I recently took part in a "Conservatives against Unconstitutional Undeclared Wars" event, which can be easily duplicated in any area. We set this rally up in about a week and a half, and there were about 240 people there at one point!

We got news coverage by the Charlotte Observer (largest news paper in NC) and a local tv news station. We made some emails to people like Gary Johnson, TMOT, Jordan Page, and had some local representatives. Almost everyone we asked to come came. We sent out some press releases (further down in the post). We have a great group of liberty fighters here in Charlotte. We banded together and made this happen.

We did concessions and a raffle. We raised over $2,000. We asked all the speakers to bring something to put into a basket and we raffled off the basket. Many brought books autographed, and one person donated some silver. Gary Johnson gave the winner a VIP ticket to dinner with him.

I feel that this was a great success. If anyone needs any help with any rallies, feel free to contact me!

For those of you that attended the 2012 Young Americans for Liberty Convention, you should stop reading right here, because nothing that I can write on this blog is going to even begin to describe what we just experienced. For the rest of you, read on and bear with me. It may have something to do with the fact that I am running on 3 hours of sleep and lots of coffee, but I couldn't wait to sit down and funnel my thoughts on the convention onto this blog as coherently as I could.

First of all, for those of you that don't know this already, the YAL staff are the greatest group of people to ever grace this great earth. I can't imagine the amount of work that went into planning, funding, and setting up the convention, but for everything they did, I am so, so grateful.

If you weren't able to attend, grab some napkins, because you are going to start drooling. You know a convention is going to be phenomenal when they kick it off with speeches from Senator Rand Paul and Representative Ron Paul. Both were as inspirational as, well, anybody ever. The next days were full of speakers and training of the highest caliber. We learned about campus activism, campaign management, and much more. As if the event wasn't magnificent enough, Representative Justin Amash came to speak on Friday night.

This convention really was a game-changer for me. I've never felt so galvanized about the liberty movement, and I can't wait for the school year to start to start spreading the message. Most importantly though, I cannot urge you enough to apply to attend this convention next year. It will provide you with invaluable information, materials to help with your activism, and networking with numerous pro-liberty organizations that all want to help you spread the message. I really can't think of a better way to progress the movement on a personal and macroscopic level, and I feel extremely lucky to have been a part of it this time around.

As I head home from the YAL National Convention, I want to reshare an older blog post of mine in which I make the case that the liberty movement must emulate the fearless African Honey Badger.

Indeed, honey badgers are the Chuck Norris of the animal kingdom. But how can we hope to achieve what the honey badger has achieved? Well, like the honey badger, we must never give in. When statism stares us in the eye and says, "Come now be reasonable, you don't want to cause a scene. Submit and go along with our plan," we must as libertarians say, "I don't care, I'll rip apart your lies like a honey badger on a black mamba. I'll tear up your nest of deceit and eat your honey, I don't care how many times you sting me with words. I'm a libertarian honey badger, don't tread on me!" Of course, we should always be polite about it.

Socialists and statists will insist loudly that cutting spending from here and there and eliminating this and that department will result in disaster. We can't fall for this sophistry, or even be slowed down for a moment. We must press forward with what must be done.

Besides being indefatigable, and always going after seemingly impossible goals, the honey badger is absolutely fearless. It fights and eats poisonous bees and snakes and has even been known to maim and kill fully grown lions that double-crossed them. I have been in many debates with socialists and statists, sometimes as many as 9 of them at once. Without flinching I refute each of their falsehoods one by one. People can often be intimidated by confrontational situations and "not want to make a scene." But don't be afraid to eloquently counter big-government "solutions;" don't be afraid to take on lions.

As the honey badger is nearly continuously hunting and eating snakes, rats and bees, we must continually advance liberty with equal tenacity. Whether it is writing an article like this one, volunteering for a campaign, planning and executing activism, or giving a friend a copy of What Has Government Done to Our Money, we must all advance the cause of freedom every single day.

The year is 2012, and, shocking though it ought to be, there are still major public figures who don’t believe in the freedom to express your opinion without government reprisal.

The crisis in free speech was precipitated when Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy was asked about his company’s support for “traditional family” organizations. He responded, “Guilty as charged.” Further scrutiny of Chick-fil-A’s charitable donations found that over the last 10 years, the company has funneled as much as $10 million to organizations that oppose same-sex marriage.

The response to what some call bigotry has been intense. Many are calling for boycotts of the franchise. Others are calling for government sanctions against the company. According to the Chicago Sun, Chicago mayor Rahm Emmanuel vowed to block the company’s expansion in Chicago, saying on Wednesday that “Chick-fil-A’s values are not Chicago values. They’re not respectful of our residents, our neighbors and our family members. And if you’re gonna be part of the Chicago community, you should reflect Chicago values.” He continued:

What the CEO has said as it relates to gay marriage and gay couples is not what I believe, but more importantly, it’s not what the people of Chicago believe. We just passed legislation as it relates to civil union and my goal and my hope … is that we now move on recognizing gay marriage. I do not believe that the CEO’s comments…reflect who we are as a city.

Boston mayor Tom Menino, the first mayor to suggest he might block the franchise, sent a letter to Dan Cathy after hearing Cathy’s comments and learning that Chick-fil-A was looking for a location to open a branch in Boston. Menino told Cathy, “There is no place for discrimination on Boston’s Freedom Trail and no place for your company alongside it.”

San Francisco mayor Edwin Lee has suggested that he might take the same stance as Emmanuel and Menino.

Without taking a position on the issue of same-sex marriage, this idea of government retaliation for free speech needs to be addressed.

Col. Carozza: “General Caldwell had the request withdrawn and postponed until after the election and then, after the election, tried to intimidate his subordinates into a consensus that it need not move forward at all."

"How could we make this request with elections coming?" Caldwell reportedly said, referring to President Obama. "He calls me Bill."

The fact that military leadership violated the law to benefit a political party is makes this is the most serious and damaging scandal to ever happen under President Barack Obama's watch. Wounded American soldiers, Afghans civilians and children, suffered under these conditions and continued to suffer because of a sick, political calculation to benefit a political party.

Long before, and fully independent of, anything Congress did, President Obama made clear that he was going to preserve the indefinite detention system at Guantanamo even once he closed the camp. President Obama fully embraced indefinite detention — the defining injustice of Guantanamo — as his own policy.

In February, 2009, the Obama DOJ told an appellate court it was embracing the Bush DOJ’s theory that Bagram detainees have no legal rights whatsoever, an announcement that shocked the judges on the panel hearing the case.

The central theme of Greenwald’s exhaustive piece is that Barack Obama has not — contrary to his rhetoric — taken any meaningful steps (or, by all appearances, even thought any meaningful thoughts) toward ending the abuses of Guantanamo Bay.

Worse, as Greenwald adds:

In fact, Obama’s “close GITMO” plan — if it had been adopted by Congress — would have done something worse than merely continue the camp’s defining injustice of indefinite detention. It would likely have expanded those powers by importing them into the U.S.

Read the full takedown of Obama's lies about his intentions toward Guantanamo Bay here.

In response to Friday’s tragic shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, Twitter users took to their timelines to express their worry. Their concern was: how will government respond to this event?

Far from demanding total security and safety, many Twitter users, already upset by TSA pat downs and screenings at airports, feared the same treatment could come to cinemas. Here are a few responses. Matt Johnson wrote:

I swear, if I have to go through TSA style security to get into a movie theater I will never go again.

Prediction: TSA at every movie theater by year’s end. It’s for our own good you know

Some are welcoming new security measures, both private and run by government. AMC Theaters has already banned costumes and face coverings in their theaters. Others are directly welcoming of increased TSA and/or police presence in movie theaters.